Help Making a Paladin?

[maddman75]

If I were you, I'd start as a human and take power attack and cleave for feats, just because anyone who is going for a tank type character needs these feats. Very handy when you come up into the horde of undead and can plow through them.

For PrC's there is a Hunter of the Dead class in Defenders of the Faith IF you can talk your DM into letting it stack with paladin levels for turning undead. It should have been done like that anyway. Might work best if you work it into an order - one of the characters in Piratecat's story hour, Malachite, did exactly this.

 

[reapersaurus]

I want him to be more of an undead hunter than your typical sword wielder. I think I will leave the dex where it is but should I take a couple of point off STR and put it in WIS.

Oh, geez, you're screwed if you want to make a paladin very good at undead slaying - their class features just don't play well to that endeavor at all.

Between some undead being Neutral (and immune to Smiting, which you only get one of anyway) and your -2 level penalty when Turning, they really don't excel at it.
The Hunter of the Dead is very underwhelming when it comes to power level.

Keep the 18 in STR. I think your stats were about perfect when you first mentioned them.
Maybe just take 2 points from INT and put into DEX.

The key for a powerful combat paladin that is not dependant on Smites to do better damage than a fighter is with the CHA stat.
Take Power attack, and by level 3 you can take Divine Might (DotF), which will up your damage output considerably.
Then invest in items (Armor of Command for 9,000, from DotF) that boost your CHA score and go to town!

 

[sparhawk]

Thanks for everybody's help in this. I am getting alot of good ideas on where I want to go with this Paladin.

Is it worth loosing the extra skill points for the increased WIS?

Where do I find PirateCats story hour? I can not find anywhere in the story hour section of the boards.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

it's there...

or here: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=779

 

[Mr Fidgit]

and i think i would vote: yes. it is worth losing the skill points for a higher Wis score

 

[CTD]

I'll join the crowd in favor of dropping that INT for WIS (or perhaps splitting it between WIS and CON as extra HP never hurt). You won't miss the skill points so badly when you make a will save by the one point of bonus you give yourself with the change

If you are going for a missile free paladin, definitely go with weapon focus, power attack, and cleave as early feats. Useful in every combat you enter into. The feats from Defenders of the Faith are a great resource to mine as well. Be sure to at least look at it.

Also consider picking up a tower shield for those pesky airborne enemies. You can't hit them? Use it for full cover and (in most circumstances) they can't hit you! Insist that they come down and fight like a man!

I think it's fine that you are missile free. It creates a weak point in your character and allows someone else to be durn good at it instead of being a jack of all trades.

Also, check the thread from yesterday about Paladins. It referenced a $5 D20 PDF that could well be worth your time and money.

 

[Jeremy]

Here's a hypothetical of what he could be like at 10th level. This assumes he was level drained at some point as a paladin by an undead creature. That is one of the requirements to join the Hunters of the Dead.

Anyways, pick and choose from anything you like here.

Sir Jonathan Williams; Male Human Paladin5/Hunter of the Dead5; Medium-Sized Humanoid; Init +0; Spd Walk 20'ft.; AC 26 (+11 armor, +4 shield, +1 deflection); Atk +18/+13 melee (1d8+8, Mace of Disruption) or +17/+12 melee (1d8+6, shield bash); SA Aura of Courage, Detect Evil, Detect Undead, Divine Grace, Divine Health, Lay on Hands 25 hp/day, Remove Disease 1/week, Smite Evil 1/day, Smite Undead 1/day, Special Mount, Spurn Death's Touch, True Death, Turn Undead 8/day; AL LG; SV Fort +15, Ref +9, Will +9; Str 20 (22), Dex 10, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 18 (20). Height 6' 4", weight 212 lbs

Skills and Feats: Concentration +16, Diplomacy +18, Handle Animal +10, Heal +12, Knowledge (Undead) +8, Ride +7, Search +15, Divine Shield, Improved Shield Bash, Power Attack, Shield Charge, Shield Expert.

Possessions: Dragonscale +1 of Negative Energy Protection; Traveler's Outfit; Dragonscale Shield +1 of Bashing; Mace +2 of Disruption; Vest of Resistance +2.

Strengths:

AC 30 after divine shield, AC 34 if the recipient of a haste or mass haste spell. With 8 turns per day, divine shield should be easily powered.

Mace of Disruption has a chance of instantly destroying any undead it strikes. 5th level Hunter's of the Dead have an ability called True Death that says any creature they slay remains dead. No staking vampires or exposing them to sunlight, no smashing phylacteries. You kill it, it stays dead.

Saves +19/+9/+9.

Diplomacy +18. When needed, you can be very persuasive.

Extreme attack. You are uniquely set up for making a powerful undead have a very bad day. Say for example you get an open shot at a powerful vampire. With divine shield increasing your shield's bonus to +5 for both offense and defense, and with Shield Charge doubling your shield charge damage you can seriously wreck his day. Add in smite undead and smite evil against the bugger, figure in the +2 to hit for charging the +7 to hit from your smites, and the additional +4 to hit from your divine shield and you can full power attack and still be at near full capacity.

+10 base +6 strength +2 wisdom +5 charisma +5 enhancement (divine shield) +2 charging -10 power attack = +20 to hit.

Damage would be 1d8 +6 strength +5 smite evil +5 smite undead +5 enhancement +10 power attack = 1d8+31 x2 for the shield charge = 2d8+62 for around 70 points of damage to him.

This of course becomes even more deadly when you are hasted because you can use your extra partial action from haste to perform this charge attack, then follow up with a full attack action consisting of two swings of your mace of disruption.

Hunter of the Dead indeed.

 

[Nightfall]

90 points?!! Geez...

Okay first what kind of world is this? Do he have access to Sword & Sword Studios material (specificially Relics and Rituals 1 and/or 2, and possibly Scarred Lands Campaign Setting: Ghelspad?) The pr-classes in the latter are MUCH better.

Anyway, that's just my Scarred Lands Sage showing.

What d20 products you do know are allowed IF any?

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

a gnoll paladin , BLACKDIRGE? i thought half-orc paladins were the running 3e joke

Yep. Gnoll paladin of Torm. I love gnolls, luckily my DM does too. The roleplaying opportunities are immense and even though his ecl is +3 his stat bonuses allow him to kick some righteous butt.


So my advise on playing a paladin is do something different. There a lot of good ECL races that would make good paladins even with a charisma hit. Hobgoblins are an excellent choice, or Githyanki or even lizardfolk. Sure, you take a level hit but I think the Paladin is a class that wont suffer as much for it.

Dirge

 

[sparhawk]

90 points?!! Geez...

Okay first what kind of world is this?

Do he have access to Sword & Sword Studios material (specificially Relics and Rituals 1 and/or 2, and possibly Scarred Lands Campaign Setting: Ghelspad?) The pr-classes in the latter are MUCH better.

Anyway, that's just my Scarred Lands Sage showing.

What d20 products you do know are allowed IF any?

The 90 points starts everybody at 0 so if you evenly distributed points you would have a 15 in each stat. This does not seem very overwhelming to me.

The world is a home brew world but I think is very Greyhawk like because not to magic heavy like FR or magic weak like DL. However the DM says magic is chaotic which I am not sure what this means.

I never heard of the Scarred lands stuff until today when I read a post about it earlier.

As far as I know he is allowing any D&D stuff but I am not sure about any thing else. This is a new group I am joining this friday so I do not have any history for what they are doing.


I have been trying to edit and save this thread for about 10 minutes and I keep getting errors